by Jae Vogel
He continued to walk through the main concourse of the mall. Everything was tinted a nice blue in this section. He stopped and looked at one of the reflecting pools toward the entrance and wondered where the water elementals were inside it. As he waited, the water stirred and a small column of water rose up and then back down again. There it was, one of the smaller ones. Since this place was dedicated to them, they had to be here. It wouldn’t make sense for the mall to have this section and not to have any elementals present. Again, he wondered how many people could see them. It wasn’t a gift many people inherited, but the average person could learn to recognize them with some basic training. It wasn’t that hard.
He thought about removing his cap, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. People no longer took their hats off when they walked indoors these days. As a matter of fact, few people wore hats anymore. He could remember when a person of respect wouldn't step outside without a hat. Now, you hardly saw anyone who wore them.
He stopped by a place which sold fish in aquariums supplies and looked into the windows. They had a nice selection of colorful tropical fish, but what else did they have in there? Gabriel knew that not every part of this mall was open to the public. There were stores for all kinds of supernaturals in the mall. Stores which appeared to be closed from the front, but which had another entrance in the back. Some of these stores had no doors. He wondered how the mall builder had gotten that one through the building code.
It had been a long trip from Atlantic City. Gabriel couldn’t remember the last time he was this far inland. It had to be years ago. He didn’t like to be too far from the sea or any bodies of water. At least there were some creeks and streams near-by. They couldn’t have built the mall inside a desert, as the lack of water would have made the construction impossible. But he would have preferred a shorter trip. It might’ve helped if he had a driver’s license. And no way was he going to risk a flight to the location. He wasn’t sure if the people behind the mall knew about him, but he also had no clue about the extent of their powers. It would be too easy for them to bring down an air flight.
Just last week he’d been on his boat in the Atlantic. The water was rough that day, but he didn’t mind. He took a group of fishermen out to an isolated spot and let them cast their lines. They hadn’t cost much and he speculated the real reason they were out there was to talk about sports and drink. He took a lot of them out that way. Guys with impressive fishing tackle who had no clue how to use it. He spent half of the trip showing the best way to catch. It wasn’t what he was paid to do, but there was no reason to just leave them to their own devices.
So here he was, just about, as far as you could get from an ocean. It was a strange place for an old sea dog to find himself.
He was about to ask someone where he could find the pool store when he noticed the girl in the tracksuit walking with the slightly overweight young man in his direction. He stopped and looked at the swim team logo on her top as they went past. He couldn’t tell what their conversation was about, but it had something to do with the game of chess. This struck him as odd, so he watched them continue on their way down the concourse. Why would two young people of such dissimilar appearances be walking together unless there was some other reason? He waited for them to pass and thought about following them to see where they went. If she had a swim team logo on her, it was likely the young lady would know something about the pool store he needed to find.
Gabriel watched where they headed and was ready to turn directions when he saw a similar couple who walked in his direction. He put his hands in the pockets of his black jacket and pretended to look at a display of newspapers on a stand. This time the girl who wore the tracksuit was a few inches shorter than the guy, but she was still as beautiful as the last one. The guy with her, on the other hand, had last year’s outfit on and thick glasses. She seemed as enamored of him as he was of her. He couldn’t tell what they were talking about just now.
He was ready to put it off as coincidence, when a third couple walked in his direction. This girl possessed hair so blond he thought it might be white. He watched them pass him by. This time he was able to listen in and hear what they were talking about. It sounded like the upcoming prom. They were asking each other questions about their backgrounds, so they couldn’t have been in any kind of relation very long. He looked back the way they’d come. Each couple had walked from the same direction. Perhaps he should head in that location.
“You sing on that rock every night?” he heard the young man ask the blond as the moved away from him.
And then it hit him: the girls were all water elementals. If these boys, hardly a one of them who looked like the type who would normally be with such a girl, were with them, it meant the water nymphs and had placed a glamor on them. What the heck was going on in this mall? He needed to find the pool store as fast as he could.
Gabriel turned and headed in the general direction the couples had originated. When he was halfway down the concourse, he noticed two more mismatched pairs. These had walked out into the main mall from a side hall and he decided to see what was there. Gabriel pulled his cap down over his grey hair and made a slight turn, his steps silent, as they were lost in the sounds of the other shoppers.
At the far end of the hall was the pool store, his destination. But coming in his direction were three more couples, which consisted of very happy young men, paired with very beautiful water elementals. They were of different racial features, but he knew the nymphs took on the form of the sailors they encountered over the years. Did any of these boys have any idea what they were in love with? He needed to find out. It had to have something with the pool storeowner, Salacia. He hadn’t seen her in years and this was the entire reason for his trip. Where was she?
Gabriel felt a familiar tingle when he walked past the bench where several young people sat. He stopped and felt something strange come over him. It was powerful, this pulse of energy. No one he’d ever met before had such a strong sense of elemental ability. He stopped walking and let it sink into him. The power originated from one of the kids on that bench. Impossible. It took years for most people to achieve a fraction of this level of background energy. It could only mean one thing: there was a natural elemental manipulator next to him and he was on his way to obtaining all the necessary powers to achieve mastery over the fifth element.
Which one could it be? He faced them and tried to decide. They were talking about something among themselves. It couldn’t be the girl it the tracksuit, she was another elemental. There it was, he could feel it. It had to be the tall boy, the one with the long jet-black hair. Gabriel looked at him again and felt the power this kid commanded. It was stronger than anything he’d ever sensed from a mortal human before. He needed to talk to him. His presence here had something to do with those nymph girl and human boy combinations he saw walking through the mall.
“Hello,” he said as he walked up to the group. “None of you know me. I’m Captain Gabriel Briah. I need to speak with the one who’s an element worker. I think that would be you, son?” He faced Dion. “Am I correct?’
Dion stared at him for a moment before he made his answer. “That’s right. I am an elemental worker and my name is Dion.” He introduced his friends and then returned to the captain. “I don’t get a sensation of an elemental worker from you, although this place makes it hard to tell much of anything. Are you with the mall?”
“No, I’m trying to find the owner of the pool store, Salacia Delphi. Is she in there?”
“I’m waiting for her to get back too. I’m told she will be here in the next hour or two. The people working there tell me she is a little abstract on her sense of time.”
“So why do you need to see her?” Dion asked the captain.
“We used to be married.” The captain let it sink into the group for a few minutes.
“So, you’re also an elemental worker?” Dion asked.
“No, I’m from Mt. Olympus.”
Dion was stun
ned. He’d never met an immortal before. This was the first time he even knew about one coming down to the level of humanity. But the man didn’t appear to be one of them. He looked old and beaten, not the sort of person you would expect to spend the afternoon talking with Zeus over the nature of storms and should reality be extended to the seventh dimension. He was at least sixty and sported a white beard and hair on his head to match. Dion assumed these beings were too busy at their lever to be concerned with the affairs of mortal men. He knew they did marry humans every now and then, but it was considered very rare. The captain was clothed in an old sea coat with matching black cap on his head. Hardly the person you would expect to cast lighting down from the sky. However, Dion did know that these beings liked to assume human form on occasion and visit this world.
“You don’t look like someone from Mt. Olympus,” Dion told him. “I would have expected a toga and a crown of light.”
“That is the expensive method,” the captain responded. “You watch too many Hollywood movies. If I could round up that much power on short notice, I wouldn’t need anyone to track my ex-wife. I’ve had to come here personally to find her. Do you know her?”
“No,” I’m here to get my third elemental power. My parents are imprisoned in the tower in the center of the mall. I need all four elemental powers so I can qualify for the fifth and get them out.”
“With the fifth, you couldn’t be stopped. It explains why all the elemental grandmasters are here inside the mall. Someone did everything they could to bring them here where they could be watched.”
“Do you know anything about the mall?” Dion questioned him again. It seemed this man might have some information he needed.
“Not much. I know it was built over the entrance to the abyss. I still can’t figure out why someone would do that. Best to leave these gates closed. Is there something I should know about this mall that I don’t?”
“My uncle built it. Or at least his company built it. He is the major stockholder in the company, which owns it. He’s also a fifth elemental worker, but one who learned the fifth without the other four.”
“Ah,” the captain said. “Him I’ve heard about. This would explain all the elementals I see around here. Those lovely young women walking with the guys their age, is that your doing?”
“Yes it is. Dennis here was glamoured by Appias and I thought if she likes him, the rest of her sisters should be introduced to some friends of mine. It solved a lot of problems.”
“Or create them. You do realize they’re all bonded now, don’t you?”
“Yes, I knew it would happen when I introduced the entire group.”
“So are you going to cut them loose when you get the full water power?”
“I don’t think so. We should be able to work something out for them. There are a number of lakes around here.”
“Not really a good idea,” the captain explained. “It never works when a mortal loves someone who isn’t. The next time I get back to Olympus, I’ll see if Zeus is in the mood to grant some mortality. He doesn’t do that very often.”
The captain thought about it some more. Another plan might be to grant the boys immortality, but that had even worse side effects. It was bad enough aging while your wife stayed young forever, worse to see everyone you know grow old and die while you remained.
“So, what is your story?” Dion asked him. “You appear to have aged. Was that the result of marriage?”
“No, it was the result of Zeus making me human. I wanted to age with my wife but I didn’t know she was resistant to it. It seems some of you elemental workers age very slowly. Not as slow as we do on Olympus, but slow enough to make a difference if you age at the normal rate of any other human. I started to notice it happen after we’d been together twenty years. After a long time, people began to ask us if she was my daughter. It became so bad I had to leave and go elsewhere. I ended up as a sailor and then the captain of my own charter boat. I’ve come back here to find out if she needs any help. Word came to me that her store in the mall was dangerously close to the abyss.”
“So what happened when you became mortal?” Lilly asked. “Did someone get your job?”
“In fact, that is exactly what happened. It was a long resignation procedure and he didn’t want me to go. But I was young and foolish. This is why your friends may eventually regret their decisions. When the time came for me to come to this world, Zeus promoted a younger immortal into my slot. He’s running that part of the operation now and I wish him luck. He found out it was a lot less glamorous than it appeared. Even the benefits aren’t that good anymore. You used to get your own island and palace to go with it. Now, you’re lucky to get a boat and a crew.
“You used to have another name?” Emily asked him.
“Poseidon,” he told them. “I used to go by Poseidon. But I had to turn my trident in when I left. I hope Hercules likes the job because he’s stuck with it until someone else is foolish enough to get it.”
“I can’t say I’ve ever been in the presence of someone who was in control of the oceans,” Dion said to the captain. “It must have been a step down to become a sailor.”
“You might think that, but I was rather sick of the job. It’s not all causing tidal waves and using your trident on arrogant whales. I had to inventory the oysters every year for Zeus. Can you imagine how much time that took? It was insane. Even with the help of the seals. No thank you, someone else can do the job. Plus I had to contend with those despicable oil freighters. You have no idea how much trouble they can be and the damage they do when they leak. I’m glad to be mortal.”
“But something had to cause you to want to be mortal,” Emily brought up. “I can’t imagine one day you suddenly decided to do it.”
“No, it was the ex-wife and only her,” he explained. “I’d tell you the entire story, but I’m sure you would find it too boring.”
“Sit down, captain,” Dion waved his hand at the bench. “We’ve nothing to do until Ms. Delphi appears. I’m sure we’re all eager to hear about it.”
“I will try not to bore you,” the captain said as she seated himself on the bench.
Chapter 10
“I was sitting on a rock,” the captain began, “watching some of the elementals sing one evening. I was in the Sargasso Sea. I like this part of the ocean because you never can tell what the tide action will bring to the center. I’ve found all kinds of things in many different broken up ships. Even found a treasure chest from lost Lemuria there one time. I have no idea how long it floated in that mess. Usually I send them to the bottom of the ocean or give the nicer sparkalies to the elementals since they like them so much.” He saw Dirce blush, which he didn’t know they could do, but he’d seldom seen them out of water.
I was in the process of looking over a boat to see if there was anything that needed my attention. Sometimes I find valuable items in them and, well, there are plenty of needy families who live by the shore and can use the help. I find a way to get the dolphins to take whatever will help to them. They usually don’t know who dropped off coins or jewels, but I liked knowing that my job allowed me to do some good.
Anyway, I found this sail boat which was on one side. I was ready to send it to the bottom for refuse, when I saw something move inside it. I turned the boat over in the water, righted it after snapping off the mast, and found a young girl in it no older than any of you. It’s not often I find anyone alive in these boats, so I was excited.”
“Were you, like, four hundred feet high at that point?” Emily asked him. “I’m assuming you had the ability to vary your size.”
The captain smiled. “No, much smaller. Just normal human size. It takes too much energy to do the Jolly Giant number, so I would conserve my mass. Besides, I was able to do a lot at normal size. It was one of the benefits of having the position: super human strength. When you have to check on the health of a Great White Shark, it’s a good idea to have that ability.
As I was saying, it was a y
oung woman. I was stunned by her beauty. Standard operating procedure was to place all survivors on the nearest outside the Sargasso Sea and hope for the best. But, she was a little different. I took her to the palace, which came with the job. This was before the cutbacks and downsizing sent the base of operations to a boat. I had the elementals at the island palace take care of her until she was rested.
Her name wasn’t Salacia at the time, I gave it to her. I don’t know where she came from originally, but the name was just too hard to pronounce. So I came up with the new one. Her speech patterns were unlike anything else I ever heard either, but the Olympian board of directors approved a new language acquisition plan that year and soon I could understand what she said.
Turned out she was the last survivor of a sunken city called Atlantis. I’d heard about it a few times, just never had the opportunity to run out and check on it because it was on a landmass on the lower part of the Pacific. From what I could make out the way she described it, the entire island went under the sea during a renovation of the crust. I’d tried to tell the Olympian maintenance department for years that they needed to watch out for these isolated places before they adjusted the undersea lava flow. As usual, no one ever listened to me. So we lost an entire civilization because no one checked to see if anyone was there. A disgrace, but I managed to save her.
She brightened up the palace a lot and after a while I kept finding an excuse not to spend too much time out on the sea. I tried to put in for an extension on the palace staff, but Zeus wouldn’t listen to me. He claimed the elementals did the job just fine and no reason to involve a human in the oceanic department.
So he left me with no choice: I had to become a mortal if I intended to be with her. By the time I explained what I had in mind, she was ready to become my wife anyway. But I was sick of the job and wanted to move on. You try doing the same thing for ten thousand years and see what it does to you.
Now this all was very long and involved. I had to submit paperwork to the board of directors who needed to approve me turning into a mortal. It’s always been a very controversial among the Olympians. One of the problems is that it takes a lot of time to make an immortal and they don’t like the idea of getting rid of us once we’re in a position that can be of benefit to them. I was once told that finding another position with the Olympians was almost impossible because once they had you in the slot where you were needed; they tended to keep you there. From their standpoint, it made no sense to train someone for several millennia, just to have them quit when they put them into the slot.